Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

The Mayans invented the beer enema to get their "drink" on faster. Visions of the future seem expected from such behavior.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Don't listen to him, he's just trying to strip Mayan. :D

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

I can dig it... 8)

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Both Gurps 3rd Edition Revised and 4th Edition are very good. I myself think Gurps 4th ed was a good move because it upped the production values to what other RPG games currently in print have. Also, the 16 4th Edition full color hardbound releases are enough to satisfy those who prefer them (like me). The e23 releases and the classic line reprints are excellent support. Pyramid in its new form is a Gurps supplement I look forward to every month.

Overall, Gurps has never been better to me. And I actually enjoy waiting for new releases now on e23 - it beats waiting for the supplements to appear on a store shelf. And other people feel the same way - e23 support for both third and fourth edition Gurps is very much appreciated by the Gurps fans out there.

The cost of doing a Gurps 5th edition would be huge - and with people very happy playing third edition or forth edition Gurps I don't see a need for this expense. At least for another 8 years or even more.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Here the thing though Gurps Vehicles is somewhat compicated and imagination or no a pin in the behind to use imo while any child that looks at it will have eyes that glaze or and no longer sparkle. So a 4E version of the book is needed. At the very least so the Gurps can lose the whole "it requires calculus and physics to make vehicles in Gurps" stigmata that I keep hearing every now and then. As for a 5E I'm not sure why they even pulbished a 4E of the game. The new rules while better could have fit all into a third Gurps Compendium. Restarting the entire line was imo not needed.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Your second sentence suggests an answer to the question implicit in the first: In the minds of the majority of GURPS players, Third Edition required large compendia. SJ Games in fact persisted in stressing that the two Compendium volumes it had published were optional, but gamers and freelancers alike persisted in citing them. It got to the point where using freelance-written GURPS content or gaming at the table of the typical GURPS GM essentially required the Basic Set, Third Edition Revised, Compendium I, and Compendium II. Between the "revised" aspect of the Basic Set and the two add-ons to it, this meant gaming with a core rules set seen through several filters, many of which altered fundamental function. We took that as a sign that we should rethink a few core rules and do our best to smooth over the wrinkles in the "core + revision + two add-ons" model. We left it for well over a decade because we didn't especially want to restart . . . it's a lot of work to do that.

Fourth Edition isn't perfect, either. However, the fact that all of its add-on rules content (as opposed to things like licensed settings) is available in easily updated, perpetually available, and electronically searchable PDF form helps a great deal. It means that we can update content retroactively in a form that lets customers easily look up references (especially true for customers who realize that PDF readers can search all the PDFs in a given directory/folder like one big book!). It also means that we don't have to throw as much money at reprints; if a customer can't afford a supplement this week or this month, it will still be available next month or next year, and might even be updated by then. All of this – the latter in particular, from a publisher's point of view – is a strong argument against Fifth Edition.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Based on Kromm's comments I'm curious whether you might potentially update core rules or advantages and then just correct the PDF.

For instance if you decided disad A should be -10% instead of -5% you could put it on the Erata page for the physical book owners and then then just update the PDF for everyone else.

With that kind of dynamic rule set it would seem that a 5th edition might practically never be needed and would allow the company to just go through every PDF with word search to pull every instance of that disad and change the cost. Then email out everyone who owns the product of the update.

I can see the writing on the wall my physical game book collection may yet turn into a tablet reader with the PDFS.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

The PDF format is page-orientation, which means that adding more detail to rules, or changing the wording very much, starts hitting problems of space on the page. Errata can be, and are, fixed in PDFs.

As an example, Tactical Shooting might make sense as further material in Martial Arts. But getting it in there without re-laying-out the book wouldn't be practical. People are also more willing to buy new supplements than to pay for revisions of something they already have - and this is a business, which needs to make income.

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

The layout alone would make this cost-prohibitive, but this would also run into contract issues. You'd either need a complicated method of figuring the split or need to renegotiate or both. A big nightmare for all involved!

Re: Is a 5th Edition coming soon?
 

Thanks for the response. Clears up a few things.